We had our annual Christmas party in early December and I forgot the pictures were on my camera! One of the first orders of business (after eating of course!) was the unveiling of the mystery quilts thaat we had worked on since June. You will recognize mine on the far right. I was amazed at how diverse they were!!
The next three pictures are also of the mystery quilts.
A few people brought things for show and tell. As usually, I didn't get names for most of them!
Well to start out, this is not my design wall but my sister's who is in the process of doing two quilts. The purple one is for an auction and the other just for fun. I happily contributed some of my strips for the purple quilt so she wouldn't have to sacrifice going to a quilt shop to buy more fabric!
Still some birds left from my visit to Florida. This is an Eastern Phoebe.
This is a Pine Warbler, one of many that were at the feeder each day.
This is a Tufted Titmouse.
This was a very pretty Blue Jay!
I decided to practice a panel One Block Wonder using this panel that I bought at Walmart. It was only $2/yard so the seven yards I needed only cost $14. The panel is 36 inches wide by 44 inches long!
Instead of my usual just cutting down the middle so I could manage the stacking, I cut it into quarters. I still had 101 hexagons when I finished cutting. I eliminated the ones that had the printing on them as well as the border of brown. The strips were 4 inches wide.
Setting them into something pleasing has been a real challenge as you can see below. Having that many hexies is just overwhelming! The only way I can judge the look is to take photos and adjust. I am far far from finished!
Managed to put the panel on the center of one of my design walls which was a serious mistake!! Here I am just throwing up the hexies as I get them done.
Added some more hexies but still on the left design wall. The hexies are held together in the middle with a thread as you sew the final top together in rows of half hexies.
Still on the left design wall but more hexies finished and an attempt made to arrange some.
Finally moved the panel to the middle and attempting to add more hexies and finding I like the very first arrangement with more of the blue the best. I have a feeling this is going to take a few days and lots of pictures before I get it where I like it. I think I have successful merged in the brown areas but having some difficulty with the blue. We shall see. Right now it is horizontal, but I think the final will be a vertical arrangement. However, I have found I have very little say in what happens before all is said and done!!
This is a Sherman Fox Squirrel, or a "monkey squirrel" as they are nicknamed and he is posing for me on my sister's feeder where he tried to deplete her supply of seeds.
How can you not like that face!
Here is a female Downy Woodpecker and a Pine Warbler looking on! It was a very cloudy rainy day.
This is a male Downy Woodpecker.
Red-bellied Woodpecker.
This is an Eastern Phoebe but taken in Ft. Fisher not down here in Florida.
Of course it wouldn't be complete without showing some of my latest project. These blocks were made from the leftovers of the backing of the Mystery Quilt. I really like the 4 patch posies and am trying different sets as I am supposed to teach a class on this in February.
I finished four blocks with their setting to see how they would look.
I decided to try them on point.
Here is the finished top which is about 42 x 60 and the fabric on the top and bottom is the remainder of that backing fabric. The repeat was 24 inches.
These were literally posies constructed from the remnants of hexagons -- pieces not big enough for the hexies. These blocks are 4 1/2 inches. If you look closely on the right hand side, you will see several blocks that contain 2 different pieces so they are 2 patches!! Think they look okay so another possibility! So I have now done, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 8 piece stack and whacks!!
I haven't been able to capture any really nice sunsets lately. This one was okay. This was taken down toward Ft. Fisher.
This was taken right at Ft. Fisher the same evening.
My husband carts his hibiscus back and forth each year. They seem to enjoy it more down here in NC than in NY!
Finally finished the sunflower quilt. I added an insert of yellow with the black binding. It is a little wonky in places but I do like it as I really like the image!
I finally finished our guild's mystery quilt as well spending the last few days quilting it. Now it just needs to be bound.
Because I used matching thread throughout, you really can't see the quilting very much but there is quite a bit. It does show a bit in the white. The quilting really straightened out this quilt!
I quilted around almost all the shapes in the ditch. I do all this freehand on my Juki.
My first step in machine quilting is to stabilize the whole thing by sewing in the ditch (with feed dogs engaged) around all the blocks and any other areas where I can straightline across the whole quilt. On this one, it was lines across the diagonal as well. I then fill in with freehand work.
